Is that Beyonce thing still a thing? A thing people are mad about? Do you think people were really mad about that thing yesterday? Or just bored by that thing because it was kind of the day after the day and we needed a thing?

I think it's that last thing myself. Because the thing Beyonce maybe did, people do that all the time, especially in made-for-TV situations, and the big thing she did the thing at, well that was made for TV.

If Beyonce did that thing, it doesn't mean she can't do her thing. It's just means there's a lot that goes into a thing like that. Like her upcoming thing.

In conclusion: things.

Now then ...

It's been a quiet while for Kevin and Anita Robinson. The last recorded
new music we heard from them was 2011's Viva Voce record, "The Future
Will Destroy You."

Anita's been busy getting to work on a proper
album for Calico Rose, the folksy bluegrass group that includes Kate
O'Brien-Clarke and Black Prairie's Annalisa Tornfelt.

Kevin's been
rolling out rough mixes from his electro-soul project Electric iLL,
letting people hear the work in progress on SoundCloud. The project goes
back to the early part of the century, "and at the time I was eating
and breathing Curtis Mayfield," Robinson says. "I wanted to sing
falsetto. I wanted to sing soul songs."

The next
step, he says, is a five-song EP, and then a full album, because,
"there's nothing more pointless in the world than making a dance record
no one gets to dance to."

Unknown Mortal Orchestra. Their new record, "II," is out Feb. 5, but you -- YOU -- can hear it right now. NPR Music is streaming "II" in its entirety. Stephen Thompson writes, "II still traffics in, and thrives on, its air of strangeness
and unknowability, but that just makes its moments of shimmery warmth
that much sweeter."

Mike Cooley, the less-prolific but stone-cold-coolest of the Drive-By Truckers' songwriters is coming to the Doug Fir on Feb. 20. He's got a new live solo record out called "The Fool On Every Corner." A lot of it was pulled from a show available in its entirety at SouthernShelter.com. You can hear beer bottles clanking and rolling and it's awesome.

In the middle of "3 Dimes Down" he drops into Bob Seger's "Rock and Roll Never Forgets," and speaking of ...

Joe Walsh has been added to the March 30 Bob Seger show at the Rose Garden. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. on Feb. 2. Fan club members will have early access. Check out BobSeger.com for all that information.

We mention Lord Dying because they seem positioned be the next big riff coming out of town. They signed recently to Relapse Records (home to Red Fang), and opened a handful of shows for former Pantera singer Phil Anselmo's band Down. This on top of support roles in recent Red Fang and Witch Mountain tours. Relapse says to expect Lord Dying's debut full-length album this summer.